The absence of a reasoned explanation more than three weeks after the Trial Chamber issued its controversial severance order decision is undermining public confidence, prosecutors at the Khmer Rouge tribunal said yesterday.

In a request filed with the court’s highest body, they asked judges to “order the Trial Chamber, as a matter of extreme urgency, to provide written reasons for its brief oral decision on the severance of Case 002.”

On March 29, judges announced that the indictment would remain severed along the same – highly criticised – lines it had set prior to the case’s start.

The ruling came after the Supreme Court Chamber ordered a reconsideration of the severance, saying it erred in law and was poorly reasoned. Judges delivered their decision in less than 20 minutes and with no explanation, though they promised a written explanation would be issued shortly thereafter.